Córas Iompair Éireann CIE Camogie Club, (Córas Iompair Éireann Camogie Club originally Great Southern Railways Camogie Club) was one of the most successful clubs in the history of the Irish women's field sport of

camogie Camogie ( ; ga, camógaíocht ) is an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women. Camogie is played by 100,000 women in Ireland and worldwide, largely among Irish communities. A variant of the game of hurling (which is played by men onl ...

1948 final

They supplied all of the members of the Dublin team that won the All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship of

1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...

and dominated the Dublin senior championship for part of an era when Dublin won 18 All Ireland titles in 19 years.

Players

Notable members include Sophie Brack,

Kathleen Mills Kathleen "Kay" Mills-Hill (8 October 1923 – 11 August 1996) was an Irish sportsperson who played senior camogie with Dublin from 1941 until 1961. She is regarded as one of the greatest players of all-time, winning 15 All Ireland Senior Medal ...

, Gerry Hughes, Kathleen Cody, Judy Doyle, Mona Walsh and Elizabeth McNicholl.

Origin

The club grew out of the

Great Southern Railways The Great Southern Railways Company (often Great Southern Railways, or GSR) was an Irish company that from 1925 until 1945 owned and operated all railways that lay wholly within the Irish Free State (the present-day Republic of Ireland). The p ...

Athletic Union. Two pence per week were deducted from the worker's wages to go towards the financing of the sports activities in the Railway. The families of members were allowed avail of the facilities. In 1938 this facility attracted to the club the daughters of two men who worked at Inchicore railway works, Kathleen Cody and

Promotion

The club was promoted from intermediate in 1938 and defeated senior champions UCD in their first match, all their scores being scored by "the young Kathleen Cody," who was 14 at the time. Within weeks another 14-year-old,

played for the juniors and was promoted to the senior team for her second match.

Challenge matches

Much of the success of the GSR team was based on their use of free rail travel facilities to play challenge matches in other parts of the country, often against full-strength teams. They beat full strength county teams from Antrim and Meath in 1940.

Greatest era

In 1951 won the three most prized trophies in club camogie at the time, the Isle of Man cup, the Dublin league and the Dublin championship, a feat never before accomplished by any single team in one season. They were unbeaten for two years 1953-55.

Disunity

The club disaffiliated from Dublin County Board during two periods of unrest in the 1940s and affiliated directly to Central Council o the Camogie Association, in 1939-41 and 1945-48. This meant that the club had little or no opposition in Dublin or Leinster when their one-club selection represented Dublin, most famously to contest the Al Ireland finals of

1941 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January–August – 10,072 men, women and children with mental and physical disabilities are asphyxiated with carbon monoxide in a gas chamber, at Hadamar Eu ...

and

1947 It was the first year of the Cold War, which would last until 1991, ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Events January * January–February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country in ...

and winning the All Ireland title in

. The club even set up an alternative Dublin county board in 1947 but were asked by central Council not to pursue this policy.

Grounds

Their grounds were at Inchicore.

References

{{reflist Gaelic games clubs in Dublin (city) Camogie clubs in County Dublin